Although Barnes & Noble is moving to separate its Nook Media business from its core bookstores, the company's plans for selling Nook devices -- including a new co-branded tablet with Samsung -- won't be changing in the near future, a Barnes & Noble executive said.

Nook e-readers and tablets have a prominent place in Barnes & Noble stores, as well as online at the bookseller's website.

Veerina declined to comment on what happens after the Nook business -- which includes e-books, devices, and accessories -- becomes its own company. Barnes & Noble, which had hoped to gain a foothold in the e-book and mobile device market with its Nook business, ended up losing money from the effort and said in June it would split from Nook. That separation won't happen until early 2015.

Veerina spoke at a Barnes & Noble store in Union Square in Manhattan, where the company unveiled the Tab 4 Nook, a tablet with Samsung hardware and Nook software that started selling Wednesday.

The device is part of Samsung and Barnes & Noble's new partnership, which was announced in June. The agreement effectively ended Barnes & Noble's move into hardware design, except for some black-and-white e-readers, with the company now leaving others to build Nook branded devices while it focuses on software and Nook content sales.

Veerina said the Samsung agreement isn't exclusive, but the Korean electronics giant is the first company it has partnered with to create Nooks.